Shufersal Promises to Be Better

Shufersal has inaugurated a new retail drugstore chain, to be called Be.

It may not sound like much, but they have big plans for it. Six stores were launched on Tuesday, and four more are set to open their doors in the coming weeks.

Shufersal chairman Mauricio Wior, who flew in from Argentina for the grand opening at Midtown Towers, said: “Not every day do we launch a new chain. We will bring a new concept, a new level of prices,” he said.

Shufersal CEO Itzhak Aberkohen added, “We now sell thousands of items online; five years from now, we will sell 20,000 items online.”

Be will be working hand-in-hand with Shufersal, marketing 1,000 of its private brand products, along with Shufersal private brand items.

Be‘s private line will concentrate on the baby, men’s toiletries, textile, paper products, makeup, accessories, and Zohara socks and stockings categories.

More to come in 2019: drugs, food supplements and more. Be stated, “We hope to issue a private brand with non-prescription drugs in 2019. We believe that we will be able to sell non-prescription drugs online in 2019.”

The new chain is part of a long-term expansion of Sufersal and its subsidiaries, which calls for opening stores at the rate of 8-12 a year for the next five years, giving the chain 100 branches, and doubling its current sales turnover of just over 500 million shekels.

Be is a makeover of New Pharm, which has performed sluggishly for several years. Shufersal aquired it from Hamashbir 365 Holdings a year ago. The new stores will bring its total number of branches up to 72 by the end of the year. And with a revitalized inventory and marketing, it hopes to challenge Super-Pharm, the market leader with 240 branches.